Rural Wisconsin Community Laments Nuclear Power Plant’s Closure

Many residents of Carlton, Wis., were angered by a decision in 2013 to decommission a nuclear power plant.Credit
Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times

CARLTON, Wis. — Sprawled over 900 acres, the Kewaunee nuclear power plant in this corner of northeastern Wisconsin is an 18-story blue and white tangle of concrete buildings, metal pipes and — deep inside — racks containing spent radioactive fuel. It is big, ugly and stocked with toxic waste.

And yet Louise Ihlenfeldt, a retired dairy farmer who lives down the road, will sorely miss it when it is gone.

“I’m not happy,” she said, peering out her living-room window on a recent morning. “I wish it could have kept on running forever.”

The owner of the plant, after making a surprise announcement in October 2012 that it would be decommissioned, began the decades-long process of dismantling its buildings and removing the used nuclear fuel from the site. Since May 2013, the plant has been offline.

Photo

Ryan Schleis holds his son Killian and his daughter Cadence at the family’s dairy farm, about a mile from the power station.Credit
Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times

The shutdown has angered many people in this community, some of whom have lived alongside the Kewaunee plant since it opened in 1974. Far from applauding its demise, they have accused Dominion, the plant’s owner, of deserting them and taking away the revenue and hundreds of jobs that long sustained this town.

The dispute has now escalated to include the promise of a lawsuit by Dominion, arguments over the value of the property where the power plant sits and ominous warnings from local officials that services in the entire county could suffer as a result of an anticipated financial shortfall.

What was once a companionable, mutually beneficial relationship between the community and the power plant has turned into a fight that some residents have likened to a nasty divorce.

“There are a lot of bitter people here,” said Allison Kruse, who lives in a gray-shingle house along Lake Michigan with her husband, who once worked at the plant. “It had been there for so long, and people did not see this coming.”

CANADA

80 Miles

MICHIGAN

Lake

Michigan

WISCONSIN

Carlton

Madison

MICHIGAN

Milwaukee

Chicago

ILLINOIS

INDIANA

AUG. 11, 2015

By The New York Times

There are 19 nuclear power plants across the country that are currently in the process of being decommissioned, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Many plants, like the one in Carlton, are in rural, sparsely populated areas with few large employers. Such plants can be an economic engine for a town, but when they suddenly shut down, they can leave a community struggling to replace the jobs and tax revenues.

In 1974, when the power plant first arrived in Carlton, about 35 miles southeast of Green Bay, some residents were alarmed, arguing that it could mar the rich farmland, rural beauty and sweeping views of Lake Michigan that were prized in the county.

Others welcomed the jobs and economic boost that the plant promised. Kenneth Krofta, who is 94 and lives down the road from the plant, said that his family sold a large chunk of its farmland to the company that built the plant. (Dominion purchased it from the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation and Wisconsin Power and Light in 2005.) Mr. Krofta remembered that at the time residents were generally receptive to its construction.

“I thought it would be there forever,” Mr. Krofta said as he stood in his yard, which is dotted with purple wildflowers and Queen Anne’s lace. “They’ve been a very good neighbor. I wish it could have stayed open. Closing it down didn’t do any good.”

Photo

The Kewaunee plant in Carlton, like many across the country, is in a rural, sparsely populated area.Credit
Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times

In the fall of 2012, Dominion shocked the community by saying that because of economic pressures, the plant would be shut down the following spring, taking hundreds of jobs with it. Richard Repshas, a spokesman for Dominion, said the plant’s 550 or so employees were invited to apply for jobs elsewhere in the company, which is based in Virginia.

Many people in Carlton said that there was an exodus from the town and its surrounding areas, as former plant employees moved elsewhere in search of work. Linda Sinkula, the town clerk, said local officials quickly realized they were facing a difficult financial situation: The town had received about $350,000 annually in revenue from the plant, about 70 percent of its total budget.

“We were thinking, ‘How are we going to make up for this?’” she said, adding that the town raised taxes on its more than 1,000 residents so that it would have extra money on hand. “This is going to be a burden on the taxpayers in this county,” she added. “You start cutting your roads, you cut expenses. You can’t only raise taxes.”

Steve Schleis, a local dairy farmer, said he was concerned about potential cutbacks to services. “How is the local government going to function?” he said. “What about schools? Are they going to change the rules so they can raise taxes more? It’s going to be a fight.”

Photo

Ron Heuer, chairman of the Kewaunee County board, said the plant's closure had been “extremely chaotic" for the county.Credit
Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times

Ron Heuer, chairman of the Kewaunee County board of supervisors, said that discussions over money among Dominion, the county board and town officials began smoothly. Dominion offered to make up for the town’s financial shortfall for a decade, but officials declined that offer, he said. A tentative long-term deal between the town of Carlton and Dominion to value the property at $10 million — so that Carlton could begin charging property taxes — fell apart when town officials backed out.

“It’s a God-awful nightmare is what it is,” Mr. Heuer said. “It’s been extremely chaotic for the county and it’s had a big financial impact on the county. We’ve obviously lost a lot of jobs. And that thing is going to be there for a long, long time.”

Ms. Sinkula, the town clerk, said that officials decided that Dominion’s property was worth far more than $10 million, based on an appraisal that valued the plant and the land it occupies at around $457 million. Dominion officials have a different view: They say the property has no value.

That assertion has angered many neighbors. “They’re saying the plant is worth nothing, and I think that’s bogus,” Mr. Schleis said.

Tasha Schleis, his daughter, also works at the family farm and has turned against the plant. “It wasn’t an eyesore before, but now I say it is,” she said. “Because now it’s not doing anything.”

Dave Hardtke, the chairman of the Town of Carlton, said: “I’m just looking forward to that plant being out of here and gone, adding, “It’s like a bad nightmare come true, just having it there. The town would have been better off all these years without the plant.”

A version of this article appears in print on August 12, 2015, on Page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Rural Town Loses Beloved Neighbor: Its Nuclear Plant . Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe